Monday, March 9, 2009

The main man, Obama's pick for watchdog over the stimulus money, 787 billion dollars, a guy named Earl Devaney. He's the guy charges with making sure money that is being sent, doesn't end up as party favors for a select few. As I've read in the WSJ, many of the systems and procedures laid out as requirements, to get stimulus money, are just not there yet. They actually have around 350 million dollars in their coffers to help with the process of watching where this money goes.

He also states that fraud typically accounts for 7% of all big contracts... that's 55 billion in fraud they already have reasoned. The man and his lieutenants will have their hands full.

A few towns in Metro West just got 1.7 million from grants from the Stimulus money. These are for law enforcement primarily and should be watched for fraud and useless programs.

Please feel free to write to this address and print out a copy of what you sent, it may be very interesting to see if they do anything with the intell. mass.stimwatch@gmail.com

12 Comments:

You are right Jim about money not growing on trees. And you are right that we need to make sure the rules are in place to make sure that there is as little fraud as possible in this process before the money is released. But what a sad commentary on our society that we have to worry about the fraud issue in such terrible economic times, and that even with all the safe guards we are putting in place, there will still be 7% fraud expected. Not a fact that any of us should be proud of. And a fact that I hope is fresh in our mind come the next election cycle. Obama has the right ideas, but one of those ideas is the accountability thing, and since that has not been a requirement of anything done by the government in the recent past, he has to design and implement this accountability requirement. But I support waiting to get this money out there until that piece is firmly in place, especially here in a state with the history that we have here in MA for corruption. So give the new President the time to do things right. Don’t rush this process. And thanks for giving us this email address to write to about suspected fraud!

Why does it take so long to get the pieces in place to release this money? They can pass legislation saddling us with hundreds of billions of dollars of debt in a week, but they can’t get the process in place to get that money into our hands in 3 weeks? Sounds like their priorities are a bit messed up. They got money to AIG and the car makers in much shorter time than they are getting it to the states. Are the big business guys so much more in need than we are? Tell my kid that when he can’t have money for college, or my electric company that when I can’t pay my bill because I have no job. Do you think they will wait while the federal government figures out how to release the money coming out of my pocket so it can bail me out?

The problem is how do we find out where the money is going to make sure it is not into someone’s pocket? If he is the guy watching them, and he does not know if they do something they shouldn’t how does he expect any of us to know? Jim you are good at tracking this sort of stuff down. How do we see an accounting of where this money is going so we can be aware of issues with the dispersal of the money?

Great thing that the state has set this up, probably a requirement from the Feds that we do it, but as long as it is done, that is what counts. Question of the day though, how does Deval justify going on vacation to Jamaica with State Police body guards? Given the state of the economy, I don’t understand him going on vacation, but I guess everyone is entitled to that. But come on, shouldn’t he have forgone the State Police guards in response to the budget issues? I don’t think he is a big target for terrorists or anything! I say we report this to this office as an example of waste, even if the money is not from the stimulus package. This really just gets my dander up!

Jamaica, where the ganja is plentiful, don't kid yourself, there's a reason he went there.

He wanted to State House to wrangle over the budget. Notice today, increase tax on soda, alcohol, candy is now off the table. I wonder why? It's a big chess game and we are the pawns in the west, where a gas tax increase will go along with a toll increase.

Our only hope to pay close attention to who gets what and how much. We may have no to little say in this process, but next year, these very same people who will defend the waste and outright theft of some of this stimulus money, will have to answer to someone or many someone's.

Much of all the broader information will be on Devals web site, but the details will be harder to find out. There lies the trouble in paradise. The lobbyist are already roaming the halls and Deleo is at center stage and his side show supporters will have to do what he asks.

Did you all see the market results today? Maybe things have really started to turn around. THat sure was some jump today, hope it keeps going that way. No idea why this happened though, Jim, have any insite on that?

Don't know what caused it, but I sure am liking what the market did today. A few more days like this and maybe I can still retire soon! Lets hope that this is a sign we have turned the corner and are on the upside of this economic meltdown at this point.

Bernake spoke today, very positive, Citi.. of all freaking banks.. made money. With a 45 billion dollar loan, even I could make money. Maddoff is going to jail for the rest of his life. Barney Frank wants to bring back the uptick rule, that has to do with penny stocks..< out of my understanding radar. Lewis from Bank of Amercia will have to spill the beans here sonn on the few Merrill employes who got billions in bonusus. Some companies had big lay off's and there are food lines in Indiana. Some very good news reported from a few comapnies (health care, industries)and Moody's has created a long list of bad credit rated companies that could fail this year... It's anyone's guess. Just watching and reading about it.. gives me a headache. It's mind boggleing, over my head with numbers that I couldn't even dream of.

But it boils down to confidence, in the system, that we all should have, or will have or must have, at this point, we have no choice. Suceeding from the State is not an option... yet. It's partially up to us, when we can, spur things along with our purchasing power... after we get jobs of coarse.

I was just reading through the blog looking for a particular comment, and it realized how much information is really available here. The range of topics is pretty wide and the open dialog is clearly from people from many different perspectives. To be honest, I was disappointed to come here this morning and not see something new to read, but I guess I should not be complaining after looking at all that is here. I know you can’t be updating this every day, but I find I do look forward to some new tidpit being here when I open it in the morning. So just a note to say thanks and keep up the good work, and I do realize now just how much work it really is. I would venture to say you are working more house than our highly paid reps are, and you are doing it for no pay at all!

6th... sometimes it's overwhelming to post just a few tid bits... when there's volumes of stuff to read and write about. I like you, need a break from all the madness and the weekends are so precious that I don't do much on this blog. Soon we will be outside in our gardens and lawns, soaking up the rays.

I have no "Jennie" in a bottle for sure. I will say, from all the signs I see, there's still a bunch of reluctance for the high rollers to get back in. That being said, I bought in on a stock below 1.00 (A Green company) and if any of us had bought Citi, Bank Of America or even GE 10 days ago, we would have made a bucket of money today.

News about Madoff going to jail and more importantly, the continued investigation into who else is involved and how much the Feds may recover, I think brightens everyone's outlook. The Launden case is going forward, as they have seized his bank accounts and AG Caumo is close to getting the skinny on the Bank of America and Merill Lynch multi billion dollar bonus scam. And word on the WSJ is that someone is trying to get chairman Lewis and his cronies out of Bank of America.

It lifts my spirits to see some form of justice being sought by the Feds. And while the new compensation rules from the Feds in relationship to performance, may lead bankers to be jittery, it does not seem to be effecting the market.

Bottom line... I think they are on a roll and some optimism has crept back into the market.